will my W124 make it?

[230K]

Hi

You need a Hiace van to tow that caravan, preferrably with a Southern Iish numberplate and magnetic sign writing diplaying that you tarmac driveways.



230K

 

[Smiley]

WT........
Are you ABSOLUTELY sure that this is not a static caravan?
Have you checked that the front wheels are still on the ground with that on the back?
It's not an oil seal you need - you need a V8 fitted to that w124.

 

[219]

It looks about the same size as the Abbey GT I had , also a twin axle and , by the look of it , a similar layout with a bedroom at the back for the kids , which could be closed off in the evening .

I towed it with both my W123 280TE and my W124 300TE without any difficulty .

 

[SilverSaloon]

It looks about the same size as the Abbey GT I had , also a twin axle and , by the look of it , a similar layout with a bedroom at the back for the kids , which could be closed off in the evening .

I towed it with both my W123 280TE and my W124 300TE without any difficulty .

The W124 E300D tows it fine and is very stable. OK steep hills are "enjoyable at 40mph" but rest of the time i make good progress at 60mph. Its 5 birth. it has a door at the back that closes off the double & bunkbed that we use with the kids. then we sleep in the bed at the front. kids can go to bed in their own "room" at night.

it even has air-con. top of the range with all the luxuries.

i'm going to take some pics of my next visit and post them on here.... just for fun. everyone loves caravans here dont they

 

[Natalie]

His n her's ????

Of course your 124 will do the business, providing you've taken care of it as it deserves! It will do you proud!

 

[A210AMG]

Whats the weight of that van and whats the weight of your car.

It does 'look' a heavy van and with airt con and full of all the stuff for your holiday...

40mph I hope thats not on motorways you give us caravaners an even worse name than normal

 

[SilverSaloon]

Whats the weight of that van and whats the weight of your car.

It does 'look' a heavy van and with airt con and full of all the stuff for your holiday...

40mph I hope thats not on motorways you give us caravaners an even worse name than normal

only 40mph up hills!!

its about at 90% match

 

[A210AMG]

40mph up hills if thats on motorways is dangerous, and thats from someone else who tows a van.

 

[SilverSaloon]

40mph up hills if thats on motorways is dangerous, and thats from someone else who tows a van.

why? i'm always overtaking people travelling at 40 to 50mph on the motorway with or without a van on tow.

i often travel at 50mph myself. i'm not sure if 40 is really dangerous when climbing a big incline - trucks will be doing the same anyway

 

[Uberwagon]

During ring trials, consumption trials, reliability trials, far too many boring tests on high speed and medium speed diesel engines, the number which kept cropping up was....

A diesel engine likes to be at 85% of peak load to run best.

Give it a workout, it will do the engine a world of good.

If you are doing 40mph up hills, add more engine or more turbo, it's too slow.

As someone who stupidly in their youth towed a Peugeot 405 on a double axle trailer from Derby to Peterborough with a 1.8NA diesel 205 van, it was horrific.

Keep the engine working, they enjoy it.

Dave!

 

[SilverSaloon]

guys, you are forgetting, its an E300D - it only does 40mph up hills when NOT towing!!!

 

[A210AMG]

Given the size of your static...sorry Caravan you probably don't see the cars bunching up behind you trying to pull out in the lane at 40mpg and causing that lane to bunch.

Unless its a crawler lane 40mph imho is TOO slow, in my book you have to keep up with the trucks / flow of traffic. I tend to find that 60mph is fine, very relaxing also not rushing around.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Given the size of your static...sorry Caravan you probably don't see the cars bunching up behind you trying to pull out in the lane at 40mpg and causing that lane to bunch.

Unless its a crawler lane 40mph imho is TOO slow, in my book you have to keep up with the trucks / flow of traffic. I tend to find that 60mph is fine, very relaxing also not rushing around.

i'm talking about very steep inclines here - not normal slight uphill motorways.... i maintain 50 to 60mph on those. almost all the time when the hill is steep enough for me to have to drop to 40mph, there are trucks doing exactly the same and often its a crawler.

i still dissagree that 40mph is too slow when towing - there is loads of people going 40 mph in the "slow" lane - if i am going 40mph i am just keeping up with the traffic in front of me usually.

the caravan isnt as big as it could be - its a standard size for 5 birth twin axle...

Internal Length: 6.32 m / 20' 8''
Overall Length: 7.99 m / 26' 2''
Overall Width: 2.19 m / 7' 2''

Internal Height: 1.9 m / 6' 2''
Overall Height: 2.71 m / 8' 10''

 

[BTB 500]

the caravan isnt as big as it could be - its a standard size for 5 birth twin axle...

Overall Length: 7.99 m / 26' 2''

Yup, that's only 3' longer than our single-axle 4 berth.

 

[A210AMG]

We will have to agree to disagree

I've towed all over England and I cannot remember doing 40mph on a motorway.

I agree if a crawler lane its fine.

I will check the length of our caravan I think the fact its a twin Axel it 'looks' bigger.

Still wish you a good safe trip...even at 40mph...



update...
our van External length 20ft 10
Shipping length 23ft 9

 

[Deleted member 11979]

As someone who drives 40k a year, mostly on motorways, 40 is TOO slow, it's about 20mph slower than lorries and other users don't expect you to be going that slowly, we have a camper van as well, and am used to mixing it in the inside lane, and very very few vehicles tavel at 40 in my experience. There was a case of a lorry ramming a tractor on the A38 from behind here not so long ago killing the tractor driver, be careful.

 

[SilverSaloon]

i'm talking about very steep inclines here - not normal slight uphill motorways.... i maintain 50 to 60mph on those. almost all the time when the hill is steep enough for me to have to drop to 40mph, there are trucks doing exactly the same and often its a crawler

so should i avoid these hills completely in my E300D then because it slows down up hill? there are plenty of cars (usually smaller cars) that slow down on large inclines.

can your camper van accelerate up a steep hill?

 

[Deleted member 11979]

It can go up Telegraph Hill which must be one of the steepest around on a dual carraigeway at about 55 if you drop a cog. It's a Sprinter Hymer coachbuilt that we imported from Germany, and it's got the 2.9 TD which is pretty lively since it's been chipped. It will cruise at an easy 70, not tried more to be fair.

 

[Smiley]

The W124 E300D tows it fine and is very stable. OK steep hills are "enjoyable at 40mph" but rest of the time i make good progress at 60mph. Its 5 birth. it has a door at the back that closes off the double & bunkbed that we use with the kids. then we sleep in the bed at the front. kids can go to bed in their own "room" at night.

it even has air-con. top of the range with all the luxuries.

i'm going to take some pics of my next visit and post them on here.... just for fun. everyone loves caravans here dont they

o yes we all lerv caravans on here we especially love getting stuck behind them on our way home on a friday evening.....even better to do a lesiurely 40mph and watch the countryside go by......good job Mr Clarkson is not on here

Just out of interest have you done the sums on keeping that great big thing and worked out the total cost of ownership vs the same number of weeks in a nice cottage somewhere in Devon or Cornwall; there can not be much in it is there? I assume a van like that is not cheap and it depreciates and it costs money to store it and the e300d only does 12mpg towing it and it takes 3 days to get to Devon........

 

[Smiley]

Given the size of your static...sorry Caravan you probably don't see the cars bunching up behind you trying to pull out in the lane at 40mpg and causing that lane to bunch.

Unless its a crawler lane 40mph imho is TOO slow, in my book you have to keep up with the trucks / flow of traffic. I tend to find that 60mph is fine, very relaxing also not rushing around.

That van is so long you would need a telescope to see the bunced up traffic 2 miles behind